Tony Smith has resigned from Credit Suisse First Boston where he was a managing director and co-head of U.S. investment-grade research. Smith is widely expected to join J.P. Morgan Securities, but a person at that firm says he is unaware whether Smith's expected hire has yet become official. Smith would pick up commercial bank coverage from Katy Rossow, a v.p., who has resigned and will leave shortly to join GE Asset Management in Stamford, Conn, according to an internal announcement sent out by Margaret Cannella, head of high-grade research at J.P. Morgan. Cannella declined comment, and Smith, Rossow and Robert MacDougall, head of fixed-income at GE Asset Management, did not return calls.
Smith has made regular appearances on Institutional Investor's All-America Fixed-Income Research Team for his coverage of commercial banks. Last year, he placed second in the U.S. banking sector and was a runner-up in global banks. People close to CSFB's research group say that while Smith was not forced out, he was viewed as expendable since the firm is aggressively cutting costs and already has an experienced commercial bank analyst in Van Hesser, a director who followed that sector for Goldman Sachs earlier in his career. Hesser, who covers non-banking financial institutions at CSFB and was recently appointed by Smith to coordinate the firm's global financial services fixed-income research (BW, 2/24), will now add commercial banks to his brief. Kevin Morley, who had been co-head with Smith, is expected to be named the sole head. He did not return calls, nor did Bill Battey, CSFB's global manager of high-grade credit research.